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3.Supporting the development of autonomous learning skills in reading and writing in an independent language learning center
The concept of “autonomy”, which involves the situations, skills and capacity in directing one’s own learning has been used in different ways in language education to suit specific contexts. How autonomy is interpreted often depends on the degree of emphasis put on various factors which impact the learning context. These factors may involve the knowledge, ability, attitude and motivation of the learners, in addition to the various constraints the learning environment imposes on learning, such as curriculum requirements, teaching and learning approaches, and institutional control.The terms “self-access learning”, “independent learning” and “autonomous learning” have become popular at different times in the past few decades. Their level of popularity somehow indicates the different stages of development concerning the factors which impact how learners take charge of their own learning.“Self-access learning” was a term often used in the 1980s and 1990s when student self-learning started to receive attention and learning resource centres in the name of self-access centres were being set up for facilitating this type of learning. Benson makes a distinction between self-access and self-directed learning. He suggests that the former refers to the design and organisation of resources, whereas the latter calls for certain skills that the learner needs to apply in a learning situation.⁷ He further points out that self-access might be defined as “the design and organisation of resources for self-directed learning” and that many SACs are in fact “other-directed to one degree or another”, as students might lack the skills to be truly self-directed. Self-access learning at this early stage, therefore, seems to imply the provision of resources rather than truly self-directed learning.
In recent years, there has been a tendency to use the terms “independent learning” and “autonomous learning” in place of “self-access learning”, as emphasis goes beyond the access and provision of resources to cover more intricate relationships between the learners and the learning processes. Although “independence” seems to be quite similar in meaning to “autonomy”, Benson & Voller point out that the former denotes freedom from reliance on others, while the latter indicates the ability to make one’s own decisions about what to do without being influenced or instructed to do so. The latter word also implies freedom from external control, which is often hard to achieve, particularly in current educational contexts where institutional authority often precedes individual learning preferences.
The idea of learner autonomy is not new, but it has been widely referred to in the field of ELT only over the last decade. The notion of learner autonomy was first developed out of practice by teacher-researchers. In the interests of widening access to education and promoting lifelong learning, CRAPEL began to offer adults the opportunity to learn a foreign language in a resources centre, free from teacher direction. CRAPEL put in place various kinds of support measures, including learner counselling and ‘training’ to assist in the ‘autonomization’ process—the development of learners’ abilities to work more effectively in a self-directed fashion. It soon became clear that participants have the full capacity to take charge of decision-making in all the areas normally determined by an institution, teacher, or textbook. This views learner autonomy as a capacity and willingness to act independently, “the ability to take charge of their learning”, for example learning by themselves, choosing and studying material satisfying their needs, understanding whether they have some problems with English or how well they are prepared for the test, reading books not assigned by a teacher and so on. It doesn’t mean that they work completely independently, without a teacher or completely alone. Moreover, it doesn’t mean that all learners have it, but they all have a capacity to become autonomous. In order to foster learner autonomy, it is necessary to develop a sense of responsibility and encourage learners themselves to make decisions about their learning. What is more, it’s possible to do at any age.
How to develop learner autonomy:

1. 
   Teach the students how to learn
   

Show the students how to learn, teach different study skills and strategies, even simple ones like writing coloured words on papers, highlighting key words, creating mind maps, techniques to remember the words better. Show them the ways they can use course book at home (listening to the tracks and working with transcripts, retelling the stories etc.) Train learners to identify their own preferred learning styles and strategies. While some students like sitting passively, reading or translating, others prefer creating tables and diagrams.

2. 
   Highlight the importance of self-evaluation
   

What is significant in learning is setting an objective. Ask the students set the objectives and then have them evaluate their progress. Moreover, to increase students’ self-awareness you might ask your students to write down what they have learnt at the lesson, what they liked / dislike about the lesson, what information was new / easy / difficult, what they have not understood very well.
Self-evaluation can be done at any age.
As a teacher, you can also raise students’ awareness by telling them what you’re going to do each lesson, and why you’re doing it.
3) Make the students research and find the answers themselves
At the lesson students might often ask “What does X mean?”. Students are looking for a quick answer because the problem is not really important to them, it is just a hindrance to their completion of the task. Sometimes hurdles are things the student have never learned before and do not know yet, and sometimes they are things that students have learned before but have forgotten. Giving a quick answer to the student’s question, such as a definition—or worse, a translation—for the word, does not help them over the hurdle. If you remove the hurdle every time the runner approaches one, then he or she will never learn how to get over the hurdles they encounter in the future without you. We should make our students work for the answers to even the small questions, have them make the effort. It is not just about them finding the answer to the question they’re asking now; it is about learning how to find answers to questions they might have in the future. Ask them to guess the meaning from the context, search online to investigate what the correct answers are. The same approach is suitable for quizzes, just don’t give the answers but ask to search for the information in English.
4) Provide guidance to study and use English outside the classroom
Show students the ways to improve their English outside the classroom. Give them a list of tasks which might motivate them and ask to try something new every week (you can even have a challenge marathon).
The example of the list:
Read a book in English
Watch a movie in English
Listen to songs / an audiobook
Create a facebook account
Create a couchsurfing / penpal account
Download an English-learning app
Create a wordlist on Quizlet
Teach English to someone (a family member or a friend)
Switch the mobile in English for a week
Make a post in Instagram in English
Find and watch an English-speaking Youtube vlogger
Talk to a stranger in the street in English
Keep a diary (for example a food diary)
As a teacher you can personalize by assigning different exercises to different learners. Provide the links to the resources, for example if the students’ weakness is listening, give them a list of website with exercises, which they can do and check on their own.
5) Use task based learning approach
Task based language teaching has become increasingly popular in the field of language teaching and learning. As the students choose the materials themselves it promotes learner autonomy. Learn more about TBL in our article.
In the 1990s when the Study-Centre was first established at Hong Kong Polytechnic, the centre primarily catered to weak students who were referred in pairs or small groups. The centre offered remedial support to those students who required supplementary tuition. Like most other universities, the self-access centre in the university also helps students develop self-access learning skills by offering individual and small-group consultation sessions for solving individual learning problems, or helping students devise and implement self-study or language improvement plans. Similar types of support are still being offered currently at the centre (now re-named Centre for Independent Language Learning) Independent learning has also become more integrated into the formal curriculum as a part of the course requirements. Some new courses, especially those developed for the new four-year curriculum which started in 2012, make independent learning a kind of web-work requirement for passing the courses. In other words, face-to-face instruction has become increasingly blended with individual self-learning, facilitated by technology.
Inclusive curriculums and variegated learning needs
The new curriculum in the university, like those in many other present-day universities, is becoming continuously inclusive in covering a wide array of skills and objectives. As shown in the web description of the new four-year curriculum from one of the universities, in 2012-13, students are expected not only to attain learning outcomes for professional competence in their own chosen discipline, but also to develop multidisciplinary perspectives with a broad knowledge base.
They should also achieve generic outcomes for all-round development, including critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, creativity and innovation, communication and language skills, global outlook, leadership and teamwork skills, entrepreneurship, cultural appreciation, social and national responsibility, and even healthy lifestyle and lifelong learning capability.With the increasingly overloaded curriculum and the inclusion of independent learning as one component of the curriculum, students no longer prefer to make voluntary commitments for long-term independent learning according to a detailed plan in the form of a learning contract. Advances in technology, such as the development of the internet, have enabled easy access to various types of resources, and diminished the role of self-access centres as resource depositories. However, there is an increasing demand on the development of complex cognitive skills to cope with the high demands of modern university education, for addressing learning needs within the formal curriculum and beyond it. These are often described as higher order thinking skills, such as critical and creative thinking skills of logical reasoning, analysis, evaluation, judgement, problem-solving and creation.
In their discussion of the learning styles of millennial students, Howe and Strauss describe seven core traits of the millennial generation. Two traits are particularly relevant in exploring the learning needs of present-day students: pressured and achieving. Students nowadays face a great deal of pressure to study hard and show their outstanding performance in various areas of abilities. To be an outstanding achiever requires higher order thinking skills, which need to develop gradually.⁸ Compared to students in the past, current students need even more support to fulfil various expectations and learning targets to accomplish more within a shorter time.The concept of autonomy needs to be re-defined in the present educational context. Learning is supposed to be more autonomous with the development of technology. Learners are increasingly encouraged to take charge of their own learning, and they are more capable in accessing information. However, this easy access to a large amount of information also causes difficulties in making choices and decisions. The development of technology brings stronger institutional control, higher performance expectations and less freedom for individual learners. Being an autonomous learner in the current educational context means having the ability to take into account all these factors and maintaining a good balance of subjection, independence, and autonomy.
In recent years, students are not so interested in seeking advice on devising and implementing long-term self-learning plans. They often go to the independent language learning centre to seek help to address more immediate and short-term learning needs for fulfilling various learning targets within or beyond the core curriculum.
Students identify their own learning targets and ask the teacher to give them guidance or advice to fulfil these in the sessions.These learning sessions are offered on a voluntary basis to the undergraduate and postgraduate students of Hong Kong Polytechnic University in various disciplines, including humanity and technical subjects. Students can choose their own time slots and teachers to work with, and request the type of help they need. The learning sessions can be flexibly structured to suit different learning needs. They can be quite unstructured or semi-structured depending on student needs and the teacher’s perception of what kind of instructional strategy will be effective and engaging for fulfilling learning objectives. They also offer the opportunity for learners to direct and monitor the learning process, as well as to reflect on their own learning.Appropriate scaffolding strategies need to be used to support the development of learning ability. According to Vygotsky’s theory on the zone of proximal development, interaction and collaboration with a more skilled expert can help to speed up a learner’s progression to another developmental level, enabling him or her to do independently what he or she could previously do only with assistance. Based on these ideas on interactive and collaborative support, Gibbonn further suggests that the use of this type of scaffolding can help learners to move toward new skills, concepts, or levels of understanding. With this type of temporary assistance by which a teacher helps a learner know how to do something, the learner will later be able to complete a similar task independently.This type of assistance is in fact relevant to both classroom teaching and for supporting autonomous learning. Autonomous learning involves not only the motivation to take charge of one’s own learning, but also the ability to do something beneficial independently. Autonomous learning skills are neither something that students can finish learning, nor something they either have or do not have. Rather, they are a continuum of different levels of abilities which require continuous development. Autonomous learning skills need to be developed at all times, because different educational environments create different learning needs that students need to tackle.
The types of scaffolding provided in these learning support sessions are different from what occur in the classroom, as they are more learner-centred and flexible in addressing individual learning needs. In supporting independent learning, the level of teacher directiveness can always be adjusted according to the requirements of the learning contexts and needs of the students. In their analysis of the written discursive devices used by language advisors in providing input to learners on planning and implementing an individualized self-directed learning plan, Mynard & Thornton describe different degrees of directiveness according to the needs and levels of awareness the students show in the learning process. In the learning support sessions discussed in this article, the levels of teacher directiveness can also be adjusted according to how autonomous individual students are. The higher level of directiveness in some parts of the sessions can also serve as models for students to refer to when they tackle similar learning targets on their own.
An important objective of these learning sessions is to encourage the development of continuous and voluntary autonomous self-learning. Students have perfect freedom in enrolling in these sessions. The kind of strategies they gain and the ability they develop will also help to sustain their interest and motivation in continuous learning. This type of support is suitable in the present educational context when students need to face a wide array of learning needs.
Students nowadays need to use three major types of autonomous learning skills: (a) general learning or study skills, such as researching, making choices and decisions about one’s learning; (b) language learning skills or abilities for different focuses, such as independent writing and revision skills, extensive reading skills and interests, and other skills in developing their reading, speaking, writing and listening abilities; and (c) higher order thinking skills to tackle the various learning outcomes (both language and non-language).In language learning, the three types of skills described above often merge for effective autonomous learners. In the following sections of this article, experiences of conducting individual and small-group support sessions for developing reading and writing skills are reported and discussed based on data and examples from two small-scale action research studies.
These individual writing conferences are one-hour writing assistance sessions offered on a one-to-one basis in which the students can request the type of help they need, based on a piece of writing they brought for discussion.⁹ These learner-centred writing sessions offered assistance to suit the various writing needs of university students, such as: (a) assignments for different subjects (e.g. term papers, project reports, theses); (b) various types of applications (e.g. for jobs, postgraduate studies, exchange programmes, internship, scholarship); (c) public exam skills development.Use of English Exam (public pre-university matriculation examination in Hong Kong some students need to re-take); (d) students’ own writing practice for various purposes to develop their writing skills and ability.These one-to-one writing conferences are not supposed to be a kind of improvement service on students’ writing, as it is impossible to offer individual assistance to the vast amount of writing that students need to do. Instead, it is a kind of awareness-building learning session to help students develop the skills to identify problems in their writing and do useful revisions on their own. In other words, the consultation sessions are examples of model reflective exercises for students to imitate for improving their writing.
The writing conferences are generally structured to include six main focuses to ensure that the target of enhancing students’ reflective skills is achieved. Depending on students’ skills and abilities, instructional strategies can vary to suit the needs of individual students, with different emphases on these focus areas:Student’s quiet reflections at the beginning on the overall strengths and weaknesses of the piece of writing by jotting notes on the work sheet; teacher reading of writing
Student’s oral reflections on overall strengths and weaknesses
Student’s oral reflections on most common language problems
Discussion of language problems
Discussion of content and organisation of ideas
End-of-conference reflections and feedback
The first five minutes of the conference is usually spent on students’ reflections and note-taking, as well as the teacher’s reading and quick marking of the piece of writing (e.g. underlining). Prompting questions were used in different parts of the conference to help students reflect and revise their own writing, especially in parts of the conferences with a higher level of teacher directiveness. The following are examples of prompting questions for scaffolding students’ ability to analyse their language problems and suggest improvements in content and organisation:The main purpose of these support sessions is to develop students’ interest and ability in further extensive reading on their own for the same book which they start reading in the small group, and even for other books for general L1 readers. It is hoped that they can gradually develop an extensive reading habit.
Online materials for continuous extensive reading
The online references at the end of the task sheet provide material to cultivate students’ reading interest further.¹⁰ They can be online reviews or critical analyses of the book for which students have read the extract, as well as multi-media materials for stimulating interest, such as film titles and audio recordings.
Student feedback
Feedback taken from the student reflections at the end of the sessions indicate that these reading sessions are beneficial for developing reading interest and ability. Students felt that they gained a better understanding of the book at the end of the reading sessions and some of them indicated that they would be interested in reading the book later or watching the film adaptation of the book.
CONCLUSION
In many cases, the pressures of and adaption to online classes have meant students have had to manage their own learning at some point. Many digital tools to assist learner autonomy have either emerged or gained popularity. Below, you’ll find a roundup of our content relating to this topic, including some helpful tools!
Encouraging learnerssuggests that autonomous learners should:
play an active role in their learning
make decisions about their learning
reflect and evaluate their learning
Read more and watch Samantha’s webinar: Encouraging learner autonomy. 
Learning to Learn
One of the seven competencies in the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework. Learning to Learn deals not only with the skills necessary to become a more autonomous learner of English, but also with study skills more generally.Dan Vincent looked at techniques for encouraging learner autonomy in four blog posts.Check out:
Note-taking and vocabulary
Flashcards, spaced repetition and example sentences
Ideas for encouraging learner autonomy when speaking and writing
Social media settings, graded readers and switching off subtitles
Write and Improve uses technology developed at the University of Cambridge to mark English writing accuracy. Learners can submit work and Write and Improve scores it using the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) scale. It then awards a level from A1 to C2. It also highlights to learners the parts of the text that may need improvement. This is a valuable facet of the tool as it encourages learners to notice areas of improvement. It also encourages redrafting of work.
Learn more on developing learner autonomy in distance learning with Write and Improve.
We asked 3 teacher trainers to give tips for developing life competencies in the teenage classroom. Students who are aware of their preferred learning style, and can reflect on their learning and proactively look for ways to improve, are much easier to teach!Teaching life skills can feel like another thing that teachers have to find time for in their busy schedules. However, it can be quite simple to incorporate
Learning to Learn alongside a language syllabus.
Check out Will, Emma and Greg’s ideas in video tips for developing independent teen learners.
Young learners
Learner autonomy is not reserved for teens and adult learners!Introducing concepts to students that promote managing their own learning can be done in very simple ways. Stephanie Dimond-Bayir suggests helping learners understand their outcomes and what success means to them can be a good start.
“It is important that children have fun as they learn… even young learners can benefit from relating positively to learning achievement.”
By encouraging learners to reflect on their achievements in small steps, you can start the journey to autonomy.